The Neighborhood Project (An Urban Paradoxes Focus)
The dictionary defines "neighborhood" as "neighborly relationships," or a "place, region, or people nearby." However, these seem to us to be rather superficial definitions of the word. We wonder, what really constitutes "neighborhood"? Is neighborhood something deeper, more profound, than a collection of things nearby? What defines "neighborly relationships," or for that matter, how do "neighborly relationships" define "neighborhood?

We also wonder, what can we learn anything by exploring neighborhoods with camera and tape recorder in hand, talking to those whose paths we come across?

The task that we have for The Neighborhood Project is to define, discern, and document what it means to live in a neighborhood, to have neighborly relations. However, we don't want to stop there, we want to learn how to create vibrant neighborhoods, how to create a community that cares for each of her residents without distinction.

The Neighborhood Project is guided by three Latin phrases: modus vivendi, meaning "life in full measure," prae se ferrel, meaning, "to make public," and tabulatum, which means both a "layer of vines" and "story." It is the goal of The Neighborhood Project to make public the intertwining layers of the stories of our neighborhoods in full measure, in a way that dispels ignorance, promotes understanding, and creates community, while providing kernels of hereto un-thought of solutions to those ills affecting so many of our urban neighborhoods.